Andy Bey & the Bey Sisters - ’Round Midnight

Prestige 30165

A certain “if it ain’t broke, why fix it” logic occasionally comes vexingly into focus in the context of the various reissue series now under the Concord Music Group aegis. This disc is a pithy case in point. Released half a decade ago as half of a highly enjoyable two-fer, this album features vocalist/pianist Andy Bey in the estimable company of two of his siblings and an A-list rhythm team of bassist Milt Hinton and drummer Osie Johnson. Guitarist Kenny Burrell also makes a welcome appearance on half of the cuts, his lithe plectral patterns giving those numbers an even more palpable after-hours ambience. You can practically smell the Pall Mall smoke and airborne bouquet from a sea of bourbon snifters.

Superficially, Bey’s model seems akin to Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, in its swirl of hip male and female voices. The music carries quite a bit more concentrated soul than that cocktail analogue. The smooth harmonies of sisters Salome and Geraldine remind me a bit of The Manhattan Transfer without the pandering schmaltz and self-aggrandizing sheen. The tunes are a fairly predictable night club pastiche: Ellington and Monk here, Ray Charles and Cole Porter there. Funneled through the honeyed pipes of the Beys they gain intimate emotional resonance and elegance along with a gospel-inflected undercurrents. Bey was still several years away from his Afrocentric sojourn in Gary Bartz’s fusion-friendly Nu Troop and it’s a pleasure to hear him tackle straight pop and standard fare, a songbook region he would return to full-circle in the ensuing decades. There may be polish and urbanity here, but it doesn’t come at the cost of creative credibility.

I suppose the principal draw of this new package is Van Gelder’s 24-bit remastering job. Trouble is, the earlier two-fer version sounds just fine and also contains a slightly superior session that switches to a similarly swing-oriented band fronted by Jerome Richardson. Neil Tesser’s studious liners are another plus, delving deep as they do into the Bey’s post Prestige careers. ‘Round Midnight is a decent date, but at a paltry 33-minutes and change, my advice instead would be to safari for that the earlier two-fer before it goes extinct.

~ Derek Taylor